Congratulations to the NHL on the great success of federal mediation in its negotiations with the NHLPA on a new collective bargaining agreement.

No, there is not a deal afoot. Don’t be silly. The success is that a few more days came off the calendar before next Wednesday, when the Board of Governors meets in New York to plot its next move for the NHL lockout. The federal mediators' involvement was announced on Monday. After meetings on Wednesday and Thursday, that was it.

“Today, we concluded two days of mediation with FMCS mediators and representatives of the NHL Players Association,” NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly said in a statement. “After spending several hours with both sides over two days, the presiding mediators concluded that the parties remained far apart, and that no progress toward a resolution could be made through further mediation at this point in time. We are disappointed that the mediation process was not successful.”

Disappointing yes, but there never was much hope that the government delegation would actually be able to foster peace between the owners and players. Everybody from labor experts to Brad Richards agreed on that, and you can bet that owners would have expressed the same sentiment if they were allowed to speak to the media. It was worth a shot, sure, but the intractable dispute between the NHL and NHLPA never fit the profile of a case where mediation would be successful.

As Warren K. Zola, the assistant dean of graduate programs at Boston College’s Carroll School of Management, told Sporting News on Monday, “There’s no particular risk other than time.”

For the NHL, even time was not a risk. There was no reason to believe that the league’s stance would change between last week, when owners rejected the players’ best offer to date, and this week—not with next week’s board meeting looming. As an added bonus, by running out the clock on this week and not coming to a deal, the owners were able to inflict a little more financial pain on the players, who will miss their fourth paychecks of the season on Friday.

What is particularly troubling as time moves forward is that it is now obvious that the lockout is about more than just money. The NHLPA’s proposal last week left the sides $182 million apart. Given commissioner Gary Bettman’s assertion that day that the league is losing $18-20 million per day during the lockout, the two weeks between that failed meeting and the Board of Governors meeting will cost the NHL more money than had the owners accepted the players’ terms.

Player contract rules, specifically the league’s desire for five-year limits on all deals, have turned out to be a much bigger sticking point in negotiations than anyone would have thought. Players want to maintain a world of limitless contracts, and much like the 2004-05 question of whether to have a salary cap, there is no middle ground between five years and infinity. Having already agreed to just about match the NHL’s desired split on hockey-related revenue, the NHLPA feels like the owners should have some give on their other desires. When players and their representatives talk about wanting to see “give and take” in negotiations, this is what they are talking about – they feel that they are only being asked to give, and give, and give some more.

Meanwhile, the owners keep playing a waiting game, with a growing sense that the lockout will end only when the owners are good and ready to end it. That’s always been the case—after all, it was the owners who decided on a lockout in the first place, as Donald Fehr is always quick to remind—but now it feels like the NHL’s readiness has little, if any, connection to what actually happens at the bargaining table short of total NHLPA capitulation.

A meeting involving only owners and players—and that's what Bettman has proposed—supports that stance. Of course Bettman would want that meeting to take place. It would pit experienced businessmen vs. hockey players.

If there is to be any change on the NHL's side, barring a fast decision by the NHLPA on decertification, it will be Wednesday, when the NHL’s owners all get in the same room and talk about what they are doing. That is the time when one or more owners—hopefully more—can speak up and let it be known that this lockout is a farce, and that whatever meager financial gains the league realizes at this point by getting a better deal than what the players have offered, it will pale in comparison to the damage already done, and the damage that might be done.

Would dissenting owners run the risk of being shouted down by board chairman Jeremy Jacobs, as was reported by CSN New England to have happened to Winnipeg Jets representatives when they spoke up? The league denied that report, but yes, that would be a risk. Is there a risk of vindictive withholding of signature events such as the Winter Classic, All-Star Game, and NHL drafts, for those owners who stand up to the madness? Of course, but there are risks worth taking, and this is one.

The NHL is taking a risk of its own right now, one that is not worth taking. The lockout will not be worth it, and the faster that enough owners realize that, and band together to bring back hockey, the faster the league can get back to business and start rehabilitating its brand. Because when the federal government declares you to be a lost cause after two days, you’ve got some real problems.